Morning Edition

On Tuesday morning, syndicated talk-radio host Chris Plante mocked "National Panhandler Radio" for having some seriously high salaries for a taxpayer-subsidized network that begs for listener donations in pledge drives. Plante cited tweets by Washington Post media reporter Paul Farhi from the latest IRS 990 form for nonprofits revealing the high salaries of NPR stars. Plante marveled first at Weekend Edition Saturday host Scott Simon, who is a one-day-a-week anchor and yet made $479,578 -- a 16 percent pay hike.

Democratic candidates generally don't have much to fear from interviews on National Public Radio, but Morning Edition anchor Steve Inskeep raised our eyebrows by pushing Beto O'Rourke a bit on Friday on what people will be forced to give up under liberal climate-change policies. The liberal media often focus on the Impending Crisis, and then go light on how liberals would crack down on "bad" behaviors.

On Tuesday's Morning Edition newscast, NPR host Steve Inskeep interviewed freshman Rep. Lauren Underwood, who narrowly defeated conservative Rep. Randy Hultgren in November. Inskeep touted how she's rare as a young black woman who represents a mostly-white district in suburbs and exurbs around Chicago. But boy, did she NOT want to talk about her fellow freshman Ilhan Omar.

NPR's Morning Edition on Monday split its Andrew McCabe interview into two segments. On the home page they were promoting Russiagate: "Andrew McCabe, Ex-FBI Deputy, Describes 'Remarkable' Number Of Trump-Russia Contacts." On air, that segment never mentioned his lying under oath to the FBI. There was a second segment simply titled "Andrew McCabe Discusses His Firing." McCabe's answers were often refusals to answer, which Inskeep spun as "exceptionally careful." Kudos to NPR for trying to explore it, briefly.

On Friday, the Ruth Bader Ginsburg biopic On The Basis of Sex expanded into more than 1,900 theaters. So the puff piece on Thursday's Morning Edition on NPR served like an informercial. NPR host Rachel Martin interviewed Felicity Jones (who plays Ginsburg) and director Mimi Leder. Jones gushed "Well, initially, I was very, very intimidated. And it's nerve-wracking paying such a beloved woman. And I, myself, am a huge, huge fan of her." Not discussed: where the film is Fake News.

NPR media reporter David Folkenflik shoveled his network's usual loads of disgust for Fox News in his coverage of Megyn Kelly's show getting canceled, allegedly over a discussion of racially insensitive Halloween costumes. "She really took on a lot of fire as a figure who brought on ideological baggage, who brought Fox News baggage." But Folkenflik didn't take this approach to MSNBC host Al Sharpton.

Twenty years after he recommended to Congress that President Clinton be impeached for perjury and obstruction of justice, Kenneth Starr has written a book about it. Surely, with the passage of time and many other books exploring the Lewinsky affair and the other Clinton scandals, Starr can be treated with dignity and respect. Back then, he faced ABC’s Diane Sawyer calling his Starr Report “demented pornography, pornography for Puritans.” Twenty years later, nothing has changed.

National Public Radio touts itself as an oasis of civility. But the calm tones of its announcers belie a dramatic liberal tilt. On Thursday's Morning Edition, longtime Supreme Court reporter Nina Totenberg touted the "quiet rage" and even "bad-assery" of Sen. Mazie Hirono, Democrat of Hawaii (lifetime American Conservative Union rating: 0.73 percent). She said to people who call her liberal, "F--- them."

Our friend David Rutz at the Washington Free Beacon found a frustrating/fascinating report by NPR Morning Edition anchor Steve Inskeep in Gaza. He softly interviewed a 19-year-old Palestinian with a swastika kite. Inskeep said "they use it to discredit you," and the man responds "We want to burn them" (the Jews). If Inskeep were interviewing a 19-year-old neo-Nazi in Charlottesville with a swastika kite, it would probably be a slightly meaner interview than this gentle exchange:

NPR Weekend Edition Saturday welcomed Parkland student leftist David Hogg for an interview, and host Scott Simon offered the typical "how are you coping" and "do you have time to be a teenager" softballs. But when he teed up Hogg to say something political, Hogg was obnoxious.

NPR couldn't be bothered to include pro-gun rights talking heads in their Monday coverage of boycotts targeting the National Rifle Association and gun manufacturers. Morning Edition featured pro-gun control activist Shannon Watts during their report on the "more than a dozen companies...cutting ties with the National Rifle Association." However, the program merely read an excerpt from a NRA statement responding to the corporate moves. Hours later, All Things Considered turned to two gun control supporters — California state treasurer John Chiang and Avery Gardiner of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence — during a segment on the anti-gun manufacturers campaign. The evening newscast followed its sister program's lead in leaving out gun rights suppporters from the report.

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